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John McDonagh’s Irish New York

Matthew Fischetti on March 16, 2023

40-year cabbie driver shares his stories

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

 

John McDonagh doesn’t care about St. Patrick’s Day.

 

“I’m sort of Irish every day and every week,” the 68-year-old Middle Village resident said in a recent phone interview. The first generation resident, whose family is from Donegal and County Tyrone, has steeped himself in Irish history, culture and news with his weekly radio show Radio Free Eireann on WBAI. 

 

“So I don’t need to wear green hats or green shamrocks to say – kiss me, I’m Irish,” McDonagh said. “I sort of go way beyond that.”

 

The WBAI show originally started as a way for Sinn Fein and the Irish Republicans to have an outlet, where they could express their point-of-view unlike how they were limited in Ireland.These days, since the country has seen peace, McDonagh has moved into more cultural coverage, where the Irish writer and former political candidate Malachy McCourt is the second mic.

 

He still doesn’t even really like to attend the parades. Back in 1981, he and other political activists were kicked out of the 5th Ave Parade  for expressing support of the 1981 hunger strike led by Bobby Sands, which was 17 days in at the time.

 

“The irony of it all is now the parade carries a banner with Bobby Sands his picture on it! So they didn’t allow it when he was on hunger strike, but now that he’s dead they support him,” McDonagh said. “He needed support when he was alive, not when he died.”

 

For most of his life, McDonagh has been a taxi driver.

 

“The normal career move for the son of Irish immigrants is you graduate high school, do your time in the service. And then you take the test for the Sanitation Department, Fire Department or the NYPD. But when I got out, they were laying off cops and firemen,” McDonagh explained, having left the service at the end of 1975.

 

“So I went and got my hack license thinking I don’t really drive for a little while,” he said. “And then 40 years later, here I am.”

 

In those 40 years, McDonagh has seen a lot. 

 

Back in his heyday, when a customer said they wanted to go to the Lower East Side, “he wasn’t going to an art gallery like it would be today, he was going into a shooting gallery.”

 

Customers would often ask to go to a run down building, which McDonagh compared to the post-bombed building of Dresden, where a few things could happen.

 

The customer would either come out of the building with guns and dope in his hand, making the taxi driver a wheelman; or the passenger would come out beaten by a drug dealer and get his doorman to pay his fare back in the Upper East Side. 

 

McDonagh did say that with the first option, “at least guys who rob drug dealers tend to tip better.”

 

His cabbie driving also led to political activism in the early 2000s. When the Republican Convention was hosted in New York City during 2004, McDonagh helped found the group Cabbies Against Bush, which offered free rides for delegates to the Kennedy or Newark airport (not including tip and toll), if they had one way tickets to Baghdad. 

 

He even went on Fox News to talk about the issue, which was supposed to be a five minute hit but barely lasted over one.

 

“So when I got on to Neil Cavuto, he asked me about tipping and I said, if the war profits from Halliburton, and Bechtel can trickle down to the drivers, it might not be bad.”

 

After the interview, McDonagh said he gave his best Ed Koch impression, asking “Hey, how am I doing?” to visible anger. 

 

He then bolted out of the studio, not wanting Fox to cancel his car back to Queens.

 

“No one knows why I’m running. So they’re following me: You got security interns, producers, – I had like a conga line behind me. And they were chasing me like an al-Qaeda suspect through Fox. So I didn’t know how to get out of the bloody place. I’m running up and down escalators and cubicles,” McDOnagh recalled with laughter.

 

He eventually made it to 6th Ave., where he hopped in the car and told the driver to go. When he got back to Queens, he told the driver that he would hope to see him again.

 

“I don’t think so,” he bluntly replied. 

 

A lot has changed over the years as a cab driver, McDonagh said. Some things are obvious, like the end of checker cabs, but also the way drivers and their riders would interact has greatly diminished since the advent of apps and cashless pay systems.

 

It’s part of the reason why McDonagh has compiled his decades of stories into a play called Off The Meter, chronicling the crazy adventures of manning a yellow cab, which morphed from years of telling jokes and stories at local bars.

McDonagh has an upcoming performance of the play on March 25 at the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany. 

 

McDonagh also shared with the Queens Ledger that he is currently working with a production company in Dublin to try and produce a screenplay that is a fictionalized version of what it was like to live in the Queens and the Bronx in the early 1990s, focusing on how Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans interacted and got along.

 

“I’m under no illusions of anything getting produced, like you could do a play because you can rent out a theater and just do it. To get a movie done… I don’t know how it gets done. I mean, somebody has to be attached. It has to be seen by the right people,” McDonagh said.

 

“To me, it’s a million-to-one shot. Like the rest of my life. I’m taking it.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified the parade McDonagh was kicked out of, it was the 5th Ave. Parade not the St Pat’s For All Parade. We apologize for the error

Scoop: Goldman receives Western Queens pols’ endorsements for civil court judge bid

Matthew Fischetti on March 3, 2023

Would be first openly gay judge in Queens if elected

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

 

Michael Goldman, a 53 year old attorney, has launched a campaign for Civil Court Judge in Queen County’s first  Municipal Court District. If elected, he would be the first openly gay judge to represent Queens.

The civil court justice manages cases where financial relief is up to $50,000, including issues such as housing and small claims. The 1st municipal court district covers Astoria and stretches over to Long Island City and slices of Sunnyside and Woodside.

Goldman has received a series of endorsements from Queens politicians including Councilwoman Julie Won; Assemblyman Juan Ardilla; State Senator Jessica Ramos; State Senator Michael Gianaris; and Borough President Donovan Richards. He also received endorsements from Queens-based district leaders like Nick Berkowitz; Émilia Decaudin; Matthew DiStefano; Breeana Mulligan; Antonio Alfonso; and Melissa Sklarz.

”For far too long, queer New Yorkers living in Queens have had no one on the bench who understands our lives, families, and experiences,” Decaudin said in a statement. “I am excited to support Michael’s campaign—he is someone who will not just finally bring this perspective to the New York City Civil Court, but the qualifications, character, and work ethic to be a judge that our community can be proud of.

Goldman has over 25 years of legal experience, having worked in private criminal defense and civil practice prior to serving as a Senior Court Attorney to Justice Jessica Earle-Gargan. Goldman previously ran to represent the Civil Court Judge for all of Queens County in 2021 and lost by just under 2500 votes in a close election.

“I am proud to endorse Michael Goldman for Civil Court, to become the first openly gay judge to be elected in our borough,” Ardilla said in a statement. “Michael knows what it’s like to be the victim of an unjust system that goes against who New Yorkers are, who we love and how we wish to live our lives.”

Goldman was inspired to practice law by family friend Joel Blumenfeld who was a Legal Aid lawyer in the Bronx and a Criminal Judge in Queens, and said that Blumenfeld’s philosophy helped shape his views on how to be a judge.

“If you’re going to be judging someone, you should judge a complete person, not just a case number on a page,” Goldman said in a phone interview with the Queens Ledger. “So it became my desire to follow his example and eventually become a judge.”

Goldman said that while he didn’t consider his sexuality the “main part of his campaign” that he was proud of being able to openly run as a gay man. Goldman recounted a story of when he was a young lawyer in Miami, one of the firm’s partners asked him if he was gay. Goldman said that he was fired just two weeks later.

“I had no recourse at the time. And to have come from that experience, in just over 25 years – to not be able to be a judge and now to do so without having to hide that part of me, is to me,  an amazing advancement that our society has made,” he said.

Goldman also highlighted his background in various aspects in law as reasons why he feels he is qualified for the position.

“I’ve been working for judges mostly in the Queens courts for over 20 years now, both civil and criminal,” he said. “I’ve spent [time] in foreclosure parts, in discovery parts, in divorce parts. And this has given me a very broad view of the issues a judge faces each day.”

Goldman continued to say that his experience  helped shape his views on how to improve the efficiency of the courthouse and that having practiced on both sides of the bench has given him “a wide understanding of the best way to function and to run a courtroom.”

Goldman currently does not have any competitors in the race at time of publication, but candidates are able to petition for the seat until April 6.

The primary for the election will be held on June 27. 

 

2023 Queens DA Race: George Grasso

Matthew Fischetti on February 15, 2023

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

George Grasso got his start as a beat cop in Jamaica.

While patrolling the streets of Southeast Queens, Grasso worked his way up through law school taking night classes – eventually reaching high level positions like First Deputy Police Commissioner under the Bloomberg Administration and most recently serving as the Administrative Judge for Queens County Supreme Court for Criminal Matters.

But today Grasso, 65, is challenging Melinda Katz for Queens District Attorney.

Grasso said that one of his main focuses as Queens District Attorney would be to enforce quality-of-life crimes such as fare evasion.

“Seriously, make that a top priority,” Grasso said in a recent sitdown interview. “Anybody jumping over a turnstile is going to be subject to arrest, then subject to a search for illegal weapons and a warrant check.”

Different academic studies have questioned the effectiveness of New York City policing policies in the 1990s.

“There is much debate over the impact of New York policing tactics on reductions on crime and disorder in the 1990s. Broken windows policing alone did not bring down the crime rates (Eck & Maguire, 2000), but it is also likely that the police played some role,” a post from the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy reads.

The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy then cites a series of academic studies running from 1998 to 2006, each attributing different significance levels of broken windows policing on crime rates, ranging from large to non-existent.

Grasso also said he would highly support measures that would return judicial discretion over dangerousness standards. New York State is one of the few states that doesn’t allow judges to formally use dangerousness for bail requirements.

While he wants Justices to be able to have the dangerousness standard as a tool, Grasso also said that he would have a next day review that defendants could file for if they believe the discretion has been inappropriately applied.

While he believes that laws such as the 2019 bail reform law went too far, he stressed in his interview that he was never the “lock them up” judge and touted his record of supporting program and diversion courts.

Specifically, Grasso highlighted his support of overdose avoidance and recovery courts which he oversaw during his time as Bronx Criminal Court Supervising Judge.

In conjunction with the Bronx District Attorney, the Overdose Avoidance Courts utilized a pre-plea model in which participants could get help without first entering a guilty plea to their criminal charges, per the Daily News.

Grasso commended Mayor Adams, who he knows back from his cop days, and said that the problem with crime is that there needs to be more District Attorneys like Mike McMahon on Staten Island since he “clearly and unambiguously embraces his role as chief law enforcement officer.”

“Mayor Adams even though he’s saying the right things, even though the police commissioner is saying the right thing –  and I believe they they want to do the right things, there is still kind of out there twisting in the wind,” Grasso said when asked how we would evaluate Hizzoner’s first year dealing with crime, without aforementioned changes in bail reform and having stronger district attorneys.

Grasso said that one of his main focuses would be to tackle crime in the 109 Precinct in Flushing, which he characterized as “off the charts.”

Grasso came to this newspaper’s office with printed sheets of COMPTSTAT numbers, the city’s tracking system for crime, which showed data from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5. In the 109 Precinct, the seven major crime indices (which include murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto) rose 74.5 percent in the last week (89 vs 41), 19.5 percent in the 28 day snapshot (276 vs 231) and in the year-to-date category rose 16.2 percent (345 vs 297).

Grasso said that if elected one of the first things he would do is tackle the issue of crime in the Flushing area.

“I’m having a meeting with the precinct commander in the 109, the borough commander of Queens north, any leaders of any merchant associations and people who are involved with these issues,” he said. “And we’re gonna put a very aggressive plan together to get to the core of these issues, to figure out these people who are engaging in repetitive theft, that people who are engaging in aggressive panhandling and following people to banks, and standing behind them while they’re on line and asking them for money.”

The primary for the Queens District Attorney Race will take place on June 23.

*A previous version of this article reported that, if elected, Grasso would subject individuals to “search warrants” if they evade transportation fare. Instead, the individual would be subject to a search for illegal weapons and a warrant check.

Hailie Kim challenges Julie Won in City Council District 26

Matthew Fischetti on February 8, 2023

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Hailie Kim grew up in Sunnyside.

Hailie Kim is running to represent the Sunnyside neighborhood she grew up in.

Kim, 29, is one of three candidates currently challenging Julie Won to represent City Council District 26 which stretches across chunks of Western Queens nabes like Sunnyside, Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside and Western Maspeth.

Kim, a 29-year-old professor, self described democratic-socialist and organizer is running on one main issue: education. It was her main issue when she ran for the seat in 2021. But Kim emphasizes that it was still her main issue after the City Council voted for the mayor’s budget, which the Comptroller’s office has estimated to total $469 million.

“I would make sure that there are no more cuts to public education in the next budget. I would, at the very least, negotiate to a place where I can get to a yes,” Kim said in a recent sit-down interview.

While Won did vote for the budget, she did secure over $5 million in capital funding for schools which are funds that help pay for construction, upgrades and more. Also,

Kim also emphasized that she would support measures such as reducing class sizes and institute bilingual education in order to improve reading and education scores.

“I think for students who need more actual in school, like structure, who are English language learners, having funds and resources to help them with their reading levels.”

In 2019, only 47.4% of students scored proficient in reading and only 45.6% of students scored proficient in math.

Beyond just education, Kim has said she would be a greater check on the Adams administration.

“The mayor was able to take advantage of the lack of experience of a freshman City Council. And that he was really able to strong arm them into just voting whatever way he wanted,” Kim said. “Because that budget was passed two weeks early.”

Kim also heavily criticized the mayor and city council adopted budget, which she likened to an austerity budget, criticizing further cuts not just to education but to public libraries and parks.

The Kim campaign has raised over $15,000 in funds thus far, qualifying the campaign for over $120,000 in matching funds.

The matching funds are part of a new program to help finance city council elections. If a candidate reaches over 75 contributors in their district for $10 or more, as well as matches other basic criteria, they can qualify for 8 dollars to be matched for every dollar donated.

Kim’s campaign has also forgoed taking money from real estate developers or police unions.

Kim told BQE Media that her path to victory will center around her focus on education issues.

“We will have the best field team out there and have as many people as possible knocking on doors, getting as many people talking about education as possible,” she said. “I think it is such an important issue, especially for a district that has one of the most crowded school districts in the city.”

Other declared candidates in the District 26 race include Lorenzo Brea and Marvin Jeffcoat. The primary for this election will occur on June 27 while the general election will happen on November 7.

Pols want to ban tax lien sale

Matthew Fischetti on February 8, 2023

Argue program disproportionately affects Black New Yorkers

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Councilmembers Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) and Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) joined supporters to rally against tax lien sale.

Electeds, advocates and supporters braved the brisk weather outside City Hall last Thursday to demand an end to the tax lien sale.

The tax lien sale was first instituted in 1996, which allows buyers to purchase the debt collected by properties that are behind on municipal costs like property taxes.

“The tax lien sale is a relic of the past. It’s a relic of the Giuliani era, and it has got to be put to an end,” Fort Greene Councilwoman Crystal Hudson said at the rally. “We have the tools we need to move forward and create solutions that build our communities up rather than tearing them down, allowing low income and moderate income homeowners to live with the dignity they deserve. And in my district, specifically, we lost 20% of our black population last year.”

In 2019, the tax lien sale generated around $80 million in revenue and recouped $300 million in unpaid property taxes prior to sale, according to Bloomberg. But critics of the program charge that the sale has led to unfair targeting of low-income homeowners and communities of color.

The tax lien sale was last used in December 2021 – which generated around $145 million, according to THE CITY.  Attempts to revive the sale failed in February 2022. Later on in May a majority of the council pledged not to reauthorize the sale.

On the heels of Thursday’s rally, advocates from East New York Community Land Trust, a community controlled non-profit founded around creating affordable housing in the Brooklyn nabe, released a 48 page report entitled “Leaving the Speculators in the Rear-View Mirror: Preserving Affordable Housing In NYC, a Municipal Debt Collection Framework”.

East New York Community Land Trust is just one of several organizations, including the Western Queens Community Land Trust, Brooklyn Level Up and New Economy Project, among others, that comprise the “Abolish the Tax Lien Sale” coalition.

The report outlines a framework in which a resident who has fell behind more than a year in payment would be able to either of the following: Enroll in a payment plan or tax exemption; transfer land to a community land trust in exchange for debt forgiveness, foreclosure and preservation as affordable housing with tenant protections; as well as foreclosure and sale with any funds from the sale going to the previous owner.

In order to prevent property owners from falling behind, the framework calls on the Department of Finance to increase staffing capacity, working with community based-organizations to expand their outreach as well as being communicative about potential benefits and explicit communication about what is owed.

The report also offers five different off ramps depending on property type. For Owners of occupied commercial or multi-family buildings without an indicator of physical distress, they can enter City Review – which screen them for different abatements and would be paired with a counselor to evaluate different plans. The review is specifically triggered when a property collects more than $5,000 in debt over two years.

If the review doesn’t resolve in a resolution, these same properties would move into a Municipal lien. Liens are also applied to properties with debt that exceed $5,000 over three years.

The third off ramp would be an offer to transfer lands to Community Land Trusts by transferring deeds to the land in exchange for debt forgiveness. Community Land Trusts are non-profit models of ownership in which the land is owned by a local non-profit in order to stabilize housing prices and aims to provide permanent affordability.

This offramp would be available to all property types except vacant lot owners.

The fourth option would force owners of occupied commercial or multi-family buildings without an indicator of physical distress to initiate foreclosure proceedings if other off-ramps aren’t taken. The property would be sold with funds going to the previous owner and the land transferred to a Community Land Trust.

The fifth option, offered for owners of multi-family properties in physical distress, unoccupied buildings and vacant lots would be “foreclosure and preservation.” Owners would still have to pay for “grossly-negligent” repairs and sacrifice their equity while the city pays for outstanding liens. Land from the properties would thereby be transferred to a Community Land Trust after being rezoned.

“This is one of the most pressing issues when it comes to housing justice, racial justice and economic justice and the intersection of all of these different crises,” Jackson Heights Councilman Shekar Krishnan said at the rally. “Here’s the two realities of the tax lien sale. One is a predatory practice for black and brown homeowners displacing them, while at the same time rewarding bad landlords and greedy developers exactly why the tax lien sale must be abolished.”

Exclusive: 1-year-interview with Joann Ariola

Matthew Fischetti on February 1, 2023

New district lines include slivers of Glendale

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Joann Ariola. (Photo: council.nyc.gov)

Last year, Joann Ariola comfortably sailed to victory to represent City Council District 32 – which stretches from Belle Harbor up to Southeast Queens nabes like Howard Beach, Ozone Park and Woodhaven.

The Queens Republican bested Democratic candidate Felicia Singh, capturing over 67 percent of the vote in a district previously represented by fellow Republican Eric Ulrich since 2009.

Although she was just elected to her first term last year: Ariola has been a long time presence in the community. A lifelong resident of the district, Ariola, 64, previously served the president of the Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic Association and as the Chairwoman of the Queens Republican Party.

Our paper dedicated to catch up with Ariola to discuss her first year in office as well as discuss upcoming initiatives.

“What surprised me most was [after my first year] how well, a body of 51 people who come from different backgrounds and ideologies can really pull together to make a better city,” Ariola said in a recent Zoom interview.

While Ariola is one of a handful of Republicans in the Democrat denominated city council, she said that she often takes a bipartisan approach to legislating, citing her position on the Common Sense Caucus – a group of conservative and center-leaning legislators, which include registered Democrats like Bob Holden and Kalman Yeger.

In her first year in office, Ariola has been the first primary sponsor of five pieces of legislation and two resolutions. One of Ariola’s bills, a law that requires the Fire Department to survey firehouses on whether they have gender specific bathrooms for female firefighters, was passed by the council and signed by the Mayor last year.

“And the mayor has already signed that into law and you know, that had widespread bipartisan support. Why? because it’s common sense. That’s how I approach things,” Ariola said.

Ariola also wrote a bill that would create an office of Marine Debris Disposal and Vessel Surrendering, which would be responsible for coordinating between federal, state and local authorities to remove debris from New York City’s shores; find ways to recycle and reuse the material; as well as developing new practices to prevent the act.

While the bill is still in committee, it has been sponsored by a majority of the council. Ariola told BQE Media that she expects the bill to pass before the end of February.

“We cannot win in this district, a Republican cannot win without Democrat and Independent voters,” Ariola said, who represents a district where over 50 percent of voters are registered Democrats.

“I ran on three major points to the platform: public safety, quality of life and education. Those are the three top subjects when we were knocking on doors – that’s what people cared about most,” she continued. “And that resonated with the voters. It didn’t matter their background – any type of ethnic background, religious background, or enrollment in a party.”

In respect to quality of life issues, Ariola said she has tackled the issue by funding additional cleanups in both commercial districts and residential streets in the neighborhood. While the issue has not fully been addressed, she said the city is in the procurement phases to get cameras to monitor chronic dumping areas throughout the district. She also emphasized working with the Queens Economic Development Program to clean up graffiti in the district.

While 2022 issues largely centered around public safety, Ariola said that quality of life issues and the economy. Specifically, Ariola said that she is looking into taxes and contributing reasons to why New Yorkers are leaving for other states.

Ariola exclusively told BQE Media that she will be sponsoring legislation that would require Deliveristas to have to register their vehicles and have them insured.

While Ariola is repping many of the same neighborhoods as previous years, her district lines have added slivers of Glendale and Woodhaven while losing parts of Ozone Park.

Ariola represents District 32. The grey lines are what she currently represents. If reelected in 2024, she would represent the area outlined in purple. (Map: NYC.redstrictingandyou.com, from the Graduate Center at CUNY)

While Ariola hasn’t represented Glendale before, she said one of the local issues she would focus on would be monitoring the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center, which has drawn the ire of locals.

“I will work as hard for the Glendale homeless shelter, the one that is just across the border in Woodhaven as as I do for the one in Rockaway to make sure that the people who are running the shelters are held accountable for their their population, and that their population is not an at risk population for our host community,” said Ariola.

In response to a question about representing the new areas, Ariola noted that despite being in different nabes, her constituents have similar issues across the district.

“I realized that there are some areas that are more specific in their issues than others, but they don’t want the loud noise from cars,” she said. “So it’s noise complaints. It’s garbage complaints. It’s the fact that construction may be being done on a school.”

Mayor unveils ‘working people’s agenda’

Matthew Fischetti on February 1, 2023

Mayor announces new policies at Queens Theatre during State of the City

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Mayor Eric Adams returned to his home borough of Queens last Thursday to give his second state of the city address, in which he unveiled his “working people’s agenda.”

The announcement, first kicked off by numerous cultural dance routines, was attended by over a hundred different elected officials, civic leaders and other major city players at Queens Theatre last Thursday.

The mayor broke  his agenda into four major categories, in which he touted previous successes and laid out future policy proposals: jobs, quality of life, housing and care.

JOBS

Among the biggest announcements in his Jobs category was the news that New York City is pursuing a first-in-the-nation biotech startup at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The 50,000 square foot space will provide office space, events and programming, with an emphasis on recruiting women and people of color into the industry.

Adams also announced that the city will work with the City University of New York to support 30,000 nurses entering the workforce over the next five years. According to federal government estimates, there will be 275,000 more nurses needed by 2030.

Adams also plans to tackle employment rate disparities for disabled and Black New Yorkers.

The unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers is at least three times as high as for white New Yorkers. This era of inequality must end,” Mayor Adams said. “We are going to make sure that all New Yorkers finally have access to good jobs.”

A new “Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion” will help connect 2,500 people with disabilities to jobs and improving workplace accessibility. The Mayor also wants to double the rate of contracts for minority and women-owned businesses, which would dole out $25billion over the next four years, per the Mayor’s announcement.

Adams also plans on launching a new apprenticeship program, which aims to get 30,000 New Yorkers apprenticeships across various industries by 2030.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Mayor Adams made several big announcements in terms of improving quality of life for New Yorkers. First of which was the announcement of a new “director of the public realm” which will be a city position focusing on public spaces.

By the end of 2023, Mayor Adams announced that the city will launch a citywide curbside composting program. A pilot of the program was rolled out earlier last year in Queens.

Adams also said that he will focus on getting ‘New York’s Most Wanted’, 1700 people identified by the city as committing a disproportionate amount of violent crime, off the streets.

Adams also indicated that he would throw support behind state level legislation to tackle dangerous drivers. Albany last year passed the 24/7 speed camera legislation, which Adams said led to a 25-percent decrease in speeding.

The new legislation is comprised of 6 bills that would would increase penalties for severe crashes and provision that allow vehicle registration to be suspended if five or more red light camera violations are committed within a 12-month span.

Hizzoner also announced that the entirety of Uber and Lyft drivers will have to have zero-emission vehicles by 2030 at no cost for drivers.

Housing

Mayor Eric Adams’s housing plan largely built off of his previously released plan to “Get Stuff Built”, which aims to build 500,000 new homes over the next decade.

Adams also announced that $22 million was allocated for tenant protection programs in order to investigate and enforce against bad landlords and help tenants from being pushed out of rent-regulated apartments.

“Building new housing is essential for our future, but we also need to address the housing crisis in the here and now. That means protecting tenants and helping New Yorkers stay in their homes,” Adams said.

Adams also announced that the city’s free tax preparation program was expanded to process an additional 26,000 returns and that his administration would pursue legislation allowing New Yorkers to retain benefits for up to six months after taking a new job.

CARE

Throughout his mayoralty, Adams has constantly dealt with the issue of homelessness in the city, announcing sweeps and safety teams to monitor the subway.

In his announcement, Adams unveiled a new plan to allow homeless New Yorkers to get a free health insurance program. The administration argues that the program will help connect homeless New Yorkers with more cost-efficient care.

The Mayor also announced a plan to open Clubhouses for New Yorkers with severe mental illness in order to provide “peer support and access to services.” The new ‘clubhouses’ are part of a broader mental health plan that the mayor said will be released within the next few weeks.

“This coming year is about expanding that vision of what can get done and what will get done. It means building a strong foundation that supports today’s realities and anticipates tomorrow’s needs,” Adams said. “City government must work to improve the public good, supporting an economy that works for all”

Subway crime down, officials say

Matthew Fischetti on February 1, 2023

By Matthew Fischetti

Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul hold a press conference in the Fulton Street Subway Station to announce significant progress in making the subway system safer on Friday, January 27, 2023. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

Major subway crime has dropped by 16 percent since last October, city and state officials announced last week.

At a press conference in Manhattan, Governor Hochul and Adams announced that the crime rate has reached pre pandemic levels, which the electeds credited to the launch of their “Cops, Cameras and Care program.” The plan added 1,2000 cops to the subways over 300 subway stops across the city and added additional trainings for NYPD and MTA employees.

The Atlantic Terminal station and the Sutphin-Archer Station in Brooklyn and Queens will have MTA police at the station, “freeing up roughly 100 NYPD officers for deployments at other priority transit locations on trains and in stations,” per the announcement.

In 2019, the rate of crime was 1.5 crimes per million rider; In 2022, the rate was 2.3 crimes per million riders; and in 2023 the ridership adjusted rate is only 1.7 crimes per million riders, according to figures unveiled by officials on Friday.

“So, despite all these facts, I can’t tell New Yorkers they should feel safe. I’m not going to even do that,” Governor Hochul said. “But the data is showing that New Yorkers are telling us they feel safer, and that’s what I’m going to pay attention to.”

MTA honcho Janno Lieber  said that through survey findings, the department found that around 60 percent of riders said they felt safe in November compared to previous results finding only around 40 percent of riders said the same in October.

100 cameras are currently planned to be installed across subway cars as part of the Governor and Mayor’s plans. The entire 6,500 car fleet is scheduled to have cameras installed by late 2024.

“We had a billion people that rode our system last year, but we have 3.9 million daily riders, an average of six crimes a day. It didn’t matter if those numbers were there. The reality was that people said they felt unsafe,” said Mayor Adams. “So we had to have a dual approach. We had to deal with how people felt and we had to deal with the actual six crimes, felony crimes we were having on average a day, and that was our dual approach.

Governor Hochul also announced that the state will create 25 more bed-units, to bring the total of inpatient beds to 50. The beds are a key part of critical time intervention, a model used by clinicians for decades that helps transition people during turbulent times. The model was first developed to provide care for  individuals facing chronic homelessness.

Fifth migrant center coming to Red Hook, BK

Matthew Fischetti on January 25, 2023

Pol criticizes migrant center rollout

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Credit: Matt Green via Flickr

As the influx of asylum seekers keeps increasing, Hizzoner announced on Saturday that the city will open its fifth emergency response center in Red Hook.

The new center, located at The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at 210 Clinton Wharf, will serve  1,000 adult men – including those transferred from the Watson Hotel humanitarian relief center as well as additional new migrants. The Watson Hotel center, located in Midtown, will now help transition families and children seeking asylum.

The site is projected to open sometime after January 24 and will run until May 1.

An estimated 41,000 migrants have arrived in the Big Apple since last spring, with 27,000 migrants currently being housed by the city,  according to the Mayor’s office. The emergency response centers are different than shelters, of which over 60 have been opened. The emergency response centers, known as HUmanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCS) are larger facilities that serve up to 1,000 people.

Red Hook Councilwoman Alexa Avilés released a statement on Saturday criticizing the plan and its rollout from the Mayor and the Governor.

“Our district has been welcoming asylum seekers and unhoused New Yorkers since the beginning, and we have multiple shelters located in our district,” the statement reads. “And once again, this administration has chosen to announce their plan to warehouse people in our district at the last hour without any advance notice or community engagement. Instead of trailing a failed strategy for the third time under the guise of getting stuff done, this admin should focus on getting it right.”

Mayor Adams’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Avilés continued to criticize Governor Hochul, saying: “She can parachute into our community for press conferences about the subway shooting or to stump for her nominee, but we have yet to see her active any meaningful support for New York City, the communities that are working to welcome new arrivals or the asylum seekers themselves.”

Governor Hochul’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

“This is an issue that is heartbreaking for all of us, to see these individuals who traveled so far under such difficult circumstances just in search of the American Dream, and I told the mayor we will be continuing to help him,” Governor Hochul said in a statement shared with the Brooklyn Star. “We’ve been helping him for many months and will continue to give him support.”

In a letter addressed to Red Hook residents obtained by the Brooklyn Star, Avilés said she was concerned about the rollout of the program, called for increased federal and state support, and advocated for long term solutions like work authorization and a pathway to citizenship.

Hizzoner  rallied with elected officials including Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar, nonprofit organizations and members of his administration on Sunday calling for federal support.

“With more than 41,000 asylum seekers arriving in New York City since last spring and nearly 28,000 asylum seekers currently in our care, our city is at its breaking point,”  Mayor Adams said in a statement. “We continue to surpass both our moral and legal obligations and meet the needs of people arriving in New York, but as the number of asylum seekers continues to grow, we are in serious need of support from both our state and federal government.”

Comptroller Brad Lander issued a December report that suggested the city should expect $1 billion in annual costs through 2026, per the New York Post. New York is uniquely impacted by the migrant influx, due to the city’s long standing right to shelter law which requires anybody who asks for a bed to receive one.

Just earlier this week, NBC New York’s investigative team released a report with allegations that the city was violating the right to shelter law due to the strain the migrant situation is placing on facilities and shelters.

Adams emphasized how the issue was not just isolated to New York, but that local municipalities from Chicago to El Paso have felt the squeeze from increased numbers of migrants.

“I call all on us to look towards our national leaders to come with real comprehensive immigration reform,” Adams said on Sunday, following a letter of elected officials calling for more support. “That’s the answer to this problem. But there’s a blazing fire that’s taking place right now. You cannot go to a house that is burning and say, the result is about teaching fire prevention. You need to put out the fire right now.”

Six Queens and Brooklyn firehouses receive solar roofing

Matthew Fischetti on January 25, 2023

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Credit: NYC DCAS

Six FDNY firehouses across Queens and Brooklyn have finished their solar roof installations.

The new panels are solar photovoltaic systems which the city says be used to make sure firehouses can remain operational during emergencies, as well as helping reduce the city’s carbon footprint.

In Queens: Astoria Engine Company 260 in Astoria, Engine Companies 291 and Ladder 140 in Ridgewood, Engine Companies 302 and Ladder 155 in Jamaica received the new upgrade. Brooklyn firehouse that got upgrades include Engine Company 254 and Ladder 153 in Gravesend, Engine Company 236 in East New York, Engine Company 309 and Ladder 159 in Flatlands.

The six firehouses were selected due to recently experienced power outages according to a press release from the Department of Citywide Administrative services announcing the installations on Monday.

Costs for the installation totaled $2.4 million and were funded by the DCAS. The panels will be managed both by the DCAS and the New York Power authority.

The new solar panels have been paired with a battery bank to keep the solar systems charged in case of an emergency. The batteries help operate roll up doors, fuel pumps, some lights, electrical outlets and more.

DCAS indicated that they are planning to expand the solar photovoltaic systems with specific focus on more firehouses, police stations and libraries.

“Firehouses are an integral part of keeping our city safe and remaining operational is critically important to the safety of our city,” Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said in a statement. “We are happy to partner with NYPA to lower our carbon footprint, and bring solar upgrades to more of our firehouses. We know this is a pathway to a more sustainable, safer city.”

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